News

Nation/World

NAVY

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs should improve its mental health treatment programs and help create a psychiatric response center to share information and prevent tragedies like the Sept. 16 Washington Navy Yard shooting, Sen. Charles Schumer said Sunday.
"Because if someone had reached out -- a mental health expert had reached out -- there might be 13 people alive today," Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. "But the system clearly broke down. One hand didn't know what the other was doing."
Schumer suggested the VA work with the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury to review how mental health treatments can be improved, how to help remove the stigma associated with mental illness and how to incorporate more mental health counselors into the Veterans Affairs workforce. 
Speaking at a news conference Sunday outside Metropolitan Hospital Center on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Schumer also called on the U.S. Defense Department to help the VA create a central clearinghouse where mental health warning signs, such as those shooter Aaron Alexis exhibited, can be identified. The center should have a 24-hour hotline for local law enforcement officials, he said.
Schumer also made the suggestions in a letter being sent Monday to VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki.
Lt. Col. Cathy Wilkinson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Defense, said in a statement, "We are aware of Sen. Schumer's suggestions. We are committed to working with the Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure service members have a smooth transition to the VA after their military service."
Wilkinson also pointed to ways that the Department of Defense works with the VA on mental health issues through the Centers of Excellence, such as an around-the-clock outreach center that provides psychological health information, resources and referrals to military members, veterans and their families. 
 The Centers of Excellence also manage a program to ensure that military members who receive psychological health care do not "fall through the cracks" when moving from one duty station to another, deploying or transitioning from the military to the VA's care. Coaches enhance the continuity of care and help service members maintain their treatment gains while they transition, the document said. 
Alexis, 34, a Navy veteran, on Sept. 16 shot and killed 12 people at the Navy Yard in Washington. He was killed by police. 
Weeks before the massacre, Newport, R.I., police had reported to the Navy that Alexis complained of having hallucinations. Alexis, before the shooting, also was treated at two VA hospitals.

Health

NYSCHU23

Schumer: Better mental health programs could prevent future tragedies

aaron alexis - cropped

WASHINGTON -- Newly disclosed video footage of the Washington Navy Yard shootings shows gunman Aaron Alexis calmly hunting his victims for more than 30 minutes, wielding a sawed-off shotgun and stepping into offices to shoot. 
 The footage, disclosed Thursday by FBI Director James B. Comey in a news briefing, makes clear the civilian contractor from Queens and Brooklyn who authorities said killed 12 Navy Yard workers on Monday was not targeting any individuals, but rather was intent on shooting as many people as possible -- even shooting a security guard and grabbing his weapon to continue the killing as he ran low on shotgun shells. 
 "It appears to me he was wandering the halls and hunting people to shoot," Comey said. 
 Alexis, 34, was familiar with the facility and its layout because he had been working there on a computer server refresher project, Comey said. 
 Investigators have ruled out elements of some initial, erroneous accounts, he said: Alexis never sprayed sniper fire down on employees in an atrium plaza. And there was no sign that Alexis had collaborators. 
 What investigators do not yet know, Comey said, is whether Alexis carried the Remington 870 Express shotgun he used onto the base with him Monday morning or if it was planted beforehand. 
 Alexis was carrying a bag with him when he parked and walked into Building 197, where the shootings occurred, Comey said. He took the bag into a fourth-floor bathroom and walked out carrying the shotgun, but not the bag. After shooting on the fourth and third floors, he descended to the lobby, where he shot the security guard. Then he went back upstairs and continued shooting, pausing occasionally to grab more ammunition from a pocket in the black cargo pants he wore. 
 He said the video shows Alexis "calmly" walking around and firing indiscriminately. 
 Police eventually exchanged gunfire with Alexis and shot him after he ran out of bullets, Comey said. "He was isolated and pinned down by the first responders." 
 The Navy Yard reopened Thursday at 6 a.m., except in Building 197. Workers returning for the first time since the shooting said they were apprehensive. 
 "I'd rather not be here today," said Judy Farmer, a scheduler from Manassas, Va. 
 Bob Flynn, who hid in an office in Building 197 with four colleagues during the shooting, said it helped to be at work with them Thursday. 
 "I feel good because I got to see my co-workers that I went through this with," Flynn said. "I get to hug people, and everybody gets the hugs and we get to talk about it and I think it's going to be helpful." 
 Flynn said Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus met with them Thursday morning. "He said, 'If anybody has a problem, you call me,' and he means it, and it's just one big family and that's why we're going to be able to make it," Flynn said. 
 On Wednesday, Alexis' mother, Cathleen Alexis, apologized in her Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, home for what her son did. 
 "His actions have had a profound and everlasting effect on the families of the victims," she read from a prepared statement. "I don't know why he did what he did and I'll never be able to ask him why. 
 "Aaron is now in a place where he can no longer do harm to anyone, and for that I am glad. To the families of the victims, I am so, so very sorry that this has happened. My heart is broken." 
 Investigators were not finished examining the video, Comey said, but were also looking for clues about the mental state and motivation of the man who in early August told police in Rhode Island that people were talking to him through the walls and ceilings of his hotel room, and sending microwave vibrations into his body to deprive him of sleep. 
 "There are indications this was a person with mental troubles and we are trying now to understand that," Comey said. 
 With McClatchy-Tribune 
 News Service

USNAVY20

Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis seen in new video footage

Cryptic phrases were carved into the Remington shotgun used by Aaron Alexis in his Monday rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, where he killed 12 people, a federal law enforcement source said Wednesday. 
 "Better off this way" and "My ELF weapon" were found on the wooden stock, phrases that mystified investigators but could be clues into Alexis' mindset, the source said. "Maybe that's his version of a suicide note," the source said of the first phrase. 
 As for ELF, "nothing is being discounted" on its meaning, the law enforcement source said. 
 Alexis, 34, a former Navy reservist and military subcontractor who worked on computers, had a history of mental issues and gun incidents, but was able to get a midlevel security clearance after passing background checks. He had been working for more than a week at the Navy Yard when he opened fire there Monday before being fatally shot by police. 
 Details on the gun and his history emerged the same day federal officials vowed to prevent another invasion of a military facility and Alexis' mother apologized in her first public statement. 
 Cathleen Alexis said she could not fathom her son's actions -- but is glad he can no longer harm anyone else. "Our son, Aaron Alexis, has murdered 12 people and wounded several others," she read from a statement from the living room of her Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment. 
 "His actions have had a profound and everlasting effect on the families of the victims. I don't know why he did what he did and I'll never be able to ask him why. Aaron is now in a place where he can no longer do harm to anyone, and for that I am glad. To the families of the victims, I am so, so very sorry that this has happened. My heart is broken." 
 Flanked by two bishops from the Brooklyn Clergy-NYPD Task Force, the mother choked up as she read. She did not take reporters' questions. 
 Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel blamed security failures Wednesday and said he had ordered reviews of physical security and access procedures at military facilities and also on practices to grant and renew security passes. An independent panel will also look at those issues, he said at a Pentagon news conference. "Why they didn't get incorporated into the clearance process, what he was doing -- those are all legitimate questions that we're going to be dealing with. How do we fix it?" Hagel said. 
 Alexis was working at the Navy Yard as part of his second stint with a Hewlett-Packard subcontractor, The Experts, a Florida-based computer and information services provider. 
 He fixed computers at workstations in different cities, the company said, and he was a productive and friendly employee with a sterling record. 
 Alexis worked there from September to December 2012, when he quit, telling his employer he was going back to school, a company spokesman said. 
 He returned in June, and, like the first time, was screened by the company and the Defense Department, company officials said. He also passed vetting for an access card to a military facility, they said. 
 When he was rehired, The Experts found only a minor traffic violation on his record, the company said in a statement. 
 But in 2004, he was accused of malicious mischief in Seattle, where police said he shot the tires of a construction worker's car with a handgun, a case that was never prosecuted. In 2010, he was arrested, accused of shooting into a neighbor's home, but charges were dropped after he told authorities his gun accidentally fired as he cleaned it. 
 Then on Aug. 7, Alexis told police in Newport, R.I., he was hearing voices that kept him awake and that people following him were "sending vibrations into his body," according to a police report. 
 Alexis then visited Veterans Affairs hospitals in Rhode Island on Aug. 23 and in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28 to obtain pills for his insomnia, the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department said in a statement Wednesday. He was alert and, when asked, denied he was struggling with anxiety and depression. He also said he did not have any thoughts about harming himself or others, veterans officials said.

USNAVY19

Source: Aaron Alexis carved phrases into his shotgun

Aaron Alexis smiling -- cropped

WASHINGTON -- The Navy Yard rampage prompted gun control groups Tuesday to call on Congress to revive the Newtown school-shooting bill expanding background checks that stalled in the Senate just five months ago.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that, while he agrees it's time to resume the debate on gun violence, he doesn't have the votes to pass a bill.
"We're going to move this up as quickly as we can, but we've got to have the votes first. We don't have the votes," he said.
The Navy Yard shootings "will renew calls for Congress to take action on bills if for no other reason than it took place less than a mile from the Capitol. It's pretty hard to ignore," said Jim Kessler of the centrist Democratic group Third Way.
The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and other groups called for Congress to act on the compromise gun bill. And members of the Newton Action Alliance, created by parents of victims of the school shooting, lobbied lawmakers on Capitol Hill. 
The call for legislative action was complicated, however, by the developing profile of the suspected shooter, Aaron Alexis, who the FBI said acted alone.
And it was set back by the FBI's determination that Alexis had used a shotgun that a gun store says he purchased legally, not a semiautomatic AR-15.
"We're still finding out about this guy. We're still at the fact-finding stage," Kessler said.
Lawmakers who fought for the bill repeated calls for action.
But they indicated they may not yet be ready for another battle this fall against the powerful National Rifle Association and its congressional allies, most of them Republicans.
Just last week, the NRA helped recall two Democratic Colorado state senators who voted for a gun-control bill.
The NRA did not respond to a request for comment.
In April, propelled by the shock of a gunman killing 20 children and six adults in December in Newtown, Conn., 54 senators voted for the bipartisan compromise bill.
But a Republican filibuster required 60 votes for passage. 
And a similar measure in the GOP-controlled House did not even get a vote.
New York Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand were key sponsors of the bill, and both issued statements saying they "hope" Congress will act soon. 
Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) called on House Republicans "to allow a vote."
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola) called for tightening background checks for guns and security clearances.
Symptomatic of other mass shootings or even everyday shootings, she said, "when guns are readily accessible and when our monitoring system isn't as strong as it should be, disaster looms."
Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said it's up to groups such as his to marshal America's broad backing for a gun bill to overcome NRA lobbying.
He said there are 54 votes for it in the Senate, six shy of what's needed, and 185 bill co-sponsors in the House, 33 short of a majority.
"The bill should come up when the votes are there," Gross said. "If we can get the Senate votes there before the end of this session, there will be a vote. If we can't, there won't."

USLEGI18

Washington Navy Yard shootings revive gun-control efforts

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One was nicknamed after a Hindu god, another was building his own plane and a third used to be the "King Oyster" at a regional festival. 
 They were among the 12 people killed during Monday's rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, all different but now united by the grief of their loved ones. 
 As investigators try to find out what set off former Navy reservist Aaron Alexis, victims' families and friends honor the Navy Yard workers with their memories. 
 Vishnu Pandit 
 He was a lover of the ocean and a man nicknamed Kisan, after the Hindu god Krishna by those who thought he had all the qualities of a deity, said longtime friend Nuns Jain, speaking for the family Tuesday at a park outside their home in North Potomac, Md. 
 The naval marine engineer, 61, was a U.S. patriot with his roots in India, the first of his college class to leave for the United States in the mid 1970s, Jain said. 
 After earning two college degrees, Pandit joined the Navy in the 1980s, his friend said. 
 "I think he was a true patriot," Jain said. "He loved his family, he loved the nation, he loved the Navy, and he did his utmost to do his best for the sailor that he felt he was serving." 
 He grew up in Mumbai, overlooking beautiful views of the Indian Ocean, Jain said. As young men 44 years ago, the friend said, he and Pandit trained together at the Marine Engineering College in Calcutta, the equivalent of the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point. 
 Besides the Navy, Pandit's other passions were his wife and two sons, his friend said. 
 Sylvia Frasier 
 By day, Frasier, 53, was an IT specialist at the Navy Yard, and at night, she was the front end manager at the Walmart. 
 She was a workaholic who always had a big smile, said her neighbors in Waldorf, Md. 
 "She was either always rushing off to work or rushing off on Saturday mornings to choir rehearsal or rushing off to church on Sundays," said neighbor and friend Renita Morse. 
 Next door neighbor David Beaner said he and his wife regularly checked on Frasier and her house because she lived alone and was rarely home. 
 "Just meeting her -- she had this beautiful smile," he said 
 Kenneth Bernard Proctor 
 The 46-year-old father of two boys had a long career at the Navy Yard and was the kind of man who rolled with the punches, said his younger sister, Julie Dyer. 
 "He always liked to laugh and joke," she said. "He took things in stride. He wanted to make life as happy as possible." 
 His ex-wife, Evelyn Proctor, said he was a loving man who was close to her and his two teenage sons even after the couple divorced this year. The two remained in Waldorf, Md., 10 minutes from each other, high school sweethearts who split after 19 years of marriage, she said. 
 They still talked every day, including Monday, before he left for work as a civilian utilities foreman at the Navy Yard, Evelyn Proctor said. 
 Proctor didn't work in Building 197, where most of the people were shot, but on Monday, she said, he was in the cafeteria, part of his morning routine. 
 Michael Arnold 
 A retired Navy commander, Arnold also was an avid pilot who was building a light airplane at his home in Lorton, Va., his uncle Steve Hunter said. 
 "It would have been the first plane he ever owned," Hunter said. "It's partially assembled in his basement." 
 Hunter said his nephew, 59, had previously been stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 
 He worked at the Navy Yard on a team that designed vessels such as the USS Makin Island, an amphibious assault ship used by the Marine Corps. 
 "He was a loving son of his mother and his wife, and great father to his kids," Hunter said. 
 Kathleen Gaarde 
 The financial analyst, 62, worked at the shipyards but had been planning the pleasures of retirement with her husband, Douglass, who retired from the Navy last year. 
 "Today my life partner of 42 years (38 of them married) was taken from me, my grown son and daughter and friends," he wrote in an email to the AP. "We were just starting to plan our retirement activities and now none of that matters." 
 She lived in Woodbridge, Va., where she counted bluebirds for a nearby wildlife refuge. 
 Martin Bodrog 
 He was in the Navy, even upon retiring after a 22-year career that included service as a surface warfare officer. 
 He died a day after his 55th birthday. He oversaw the design and procurement of naval ships by using his expertise in amphibious operations. 
 The 1981 U.S. Naval Academy graduate was also a lifelong hockey fan, particularly of the Boston Bruins. 
 He lived in Annandale, Va., and could frequently be seen in all types of weather, even after blizzards, in his trademark Bruins jersey and his shorts, walking his dog and helping shovel all the driveways of his elderly neighbors, those who knew him said. 
 Frank Kohler 
 He was a past president of a Rotary Club in Maryland, and, as such, he proudly held the title of "King Oyster" at the annual festival celebrating the region's signature bivalve each October. 
 "He walks around with a crown and robe, and gives out candy," said Bob Allen, Kohler's former boss at Lockheed Martin in southern Maryland. 
 Kohler, 50, had driven up to the Navy Yard for a meeting when the shootings occurred, friends told Allen. A resident of Timbers, Md., Kohler, 50, was an avid but not quite skilled golfer, a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and a hunter, his friend said. 
 John R. Johnson 
 Johnson was a civilian contractor working as a logistics analyst at the Naval Sea Systems Command. 
 On Oct. 7, the Derwood, Md., resident would have turned 74, The father of four girls, he was expecting his 11th grandchild in November, his family said. 
 Mary Delorenzo Knight 
 The 51-year-old IT specialist from Reston, Va., was the daughter of a former Green Beret instructor, said Theodore Hisey, a family spokesman. 
 Knight was also a part-time instructor of information technology at Northern Virginia Community College, school spokeswoman Jessica Baxter said. 
 Richard Michael Ridgell 
 Ridgell, 52, started with the Maryland State Police in 1983 and resigned in 2000 as a corporal, a spokesman said. 
 "He was very familiar with weapons," said his father-in-law, Thomas C. Lyons. 
 Ridgell had been employed by a number of security firms and his work had taken him to the Middle East, Lyons said. 
 Ridgell lived in Westminster, Md., with his wife of 20 years, coached softball for his two daughters, and, like a true Marylander, he loved the state's culinary specialty, Lyons said. "He loved his crabs." 
 The other victims are Arthur Daniels, 51, of Washington, D.C.; and Gerald L. Read, 58, of Alexandria, Va. With Nicole Fuller, AP and Bloomberg News

USFAMI18.WEB

Navy Yard shooting victims Vishnu Pandit, Michael Arnold, Sylvia Frasier, Kathleen Gaarde, Frank Kohler, Kenneth Proctor remembered

 Frank Kohler -- cropped

A man who said he is the brother-in-law of Aaron Alexis, the suspect in the fatal shootings at the Washington Navy Yard, said family members are devastated by Monday's attack. 
 Anthony Little, 31, emerged from the home of Alexis' mother on Putnam Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn on Tuesday morning, talking as he walked down the street. 
 Calling the shooting deaths of 12 people "devastating," Little also said he was "super shocked." 
 Little, who said he is married to Alexis' sister, Naomi Alexis-Little, 32, left the house just before 10 a.m. and told reporters he was on his way to work. 
 He said Aaron Alexis' mother is "under a lot of stress," but would address the media at some point. 
 "It's a lot for her," he said. "She just lost her son." 
 Aaron Alexis, a Navy veteran who law enforcement authorities say opened fire on dozens of people at the Washington Navy Yard, is a former New Yorker who according to one Queens neighbor had lived a quiet life, a man who learned to speak Thai, dabbled in Buddhism and meditated. 
 But Alexis also had a record of shooting guns during disputes, according to police records. 
 Alexis, who was shot dead by police at the Navy Yard on Monday, had terrorized another neighbor with a gun in Fort Worth, Texas, where he had been living for the past several years, police and media reports said. 
 In that Sept. 6, 2010, episode, Alexis was arrested after firing a gun into the ceiling of his apartment, nearly striking a neighbor with whom he had been feuding. 
 In 2004, Seattle police said Alexis shot out the tires of construction workers' vehicles that had been parked at a worksite near the Seattle home where he had been living with his grandmother. 
 Those reports, coupled with the carnage of Monday's attack, paint a picture of a complex, if disturbed man who police say acted alone in the rampage that left at least 13 people dead for reasons that have not yet become clear. 
 "They were a quiet family from what I remember," said Wendy Lopez, a 30-year resident of the Flushing apartment at 144-46 77th Rd. where she recalled Alexis' family living for several years ending in 2002. "I'm absolutely floored and shocked. There was nothing I would have said back then that showed a sign -- a very quiet family." 
 Lopez said Monday that she remembers the family -- a mom, a daughter and two teenage boys -- living in apartment 3B, directly above her, for about two years. 
 She said she sometimes exchanged greetings with the mother and children, but didn't get their names. 
 She said they were quiet and she only once complained to them about noise -- a bouncing basketball. She said when she knocked on their apartment door to complain, they were "very nice. Never a problem." 
 Military personnel records show that Alexis spent nearly four years in the Navy as a full-time reservist from May 2007 until he was discharged in January 2011, according to The Washington Post, which cited a summary of Alexis' personnel records released by Navy officials at the Pentagon. 
 Alexis reached the rank of aviation electrician's mate 3rd class in December 2009. 
 He was awarded the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal -- two common awards for military personnel, according to The Washington Post. 
 Monday's shooting came three years after Alexis was arrested in the firing of a shot through the ceiling of his Fort Worth apartment. 
 According to a Sept. 6, 2010, Fort Worth police report obtained by Newsday, the neighbor said she heard a "pop" and saw dust falling from her ceiling, then realized there was a hole in her floor "just a couple of feet from where she was sitting." 
 "She said that several days ago Aaron confronted her in the parking lot about making too much noise," the report read. 
 The report said Alexis claimed he had been cleaning a gun when it went off accidentally, and explained he never inquired about whether he had injured anyone because he did not think the bullet had gone through the ceiling. 
 In Seattle in 2004, police said Alexis evaded them for almost a month after he shot out the tires of the construction workers' cars. Alexis told police that he had been the victim of an anger fueled "blackout," and that he had felt disrespected by the men. 
 Police said they interviewed Alexis' father in New York City, who told them Alexis had anger problems related to post-traumatic stress disorder after assisting with rescue efforts in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. 
 Still, his Fort Worth acquaintances said he was a peaceful man who liked to meditate. 
 Nutpisit Suthamtewakul, owner of Happy Bowl Thai in White Settlement, a Fort Worth suburb, said Alexis was "my best friend," according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 
 "He lived with me three years," Suthamtewakul said. "I don't think he'd do this. He has a gun, but I don't think he's that stupid. He didn't seem aggressive to me." 
 With Martin Evans, Gary Dymski and wire reports

USALEX18

Aaron Alexis' family 'shocked' by Navy Yard rampage

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The Navy veteran who shot and killed 12 workers at the Washington Navy Yard had a history of mental problems and just last month told police in Rhode Island he was hearing voices, according to authorities and sources close to the investigation.
Aaron Alexis, who was shot and killed in the Monday morning attack, also said people were trying to send him messages and vibrations by microwave machine in an effort to keep him awake, according to Lt. William Fitzgerald of the Newport Police Department in Newport, R.I.
Officers who responded to the August call were told by Alexis that he had heard "voices speaking to him through the wall, flooring and ceiling," Fitzgerald said. Alexis was doing contracting work for the Navy in Newport.
Federal officials Tuesday refused to comment on the mental health of Alexis, whose family lives in Brooklyn, and authorities continued to search for a motive behind the rampage, which also wounded eight.
Alexis, who had security clearance to enter the Navy facility, walked in, hiding a disassembled shotgun, the source said. Once inside, Alexis carried out the attack with the reassembled shotgun and at least one semiautomatic handgun plucked from a police officer the 34-year-old from Queens and Brooklyn wounded during a gunfight, the source said.
Alexis' fragile mental state and his ability to sneak a shotgun onto a military installation just blocks from the Capitol stoked more calls from officials for answers. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus ordered a review of base security, to be submitted to his office by Oct. 1.
A source told Newsday that Alexis planned his attack in advance but once he began shooting, he chose random victims rather than specific targets.
Alexis, with his shotgun hidden, arrived at the historic Navy Yard about 8 a.m. Monday after flashing a valid pass. Once inside, investigators suspect he entered a restroom and put the shotgun back together. He then fired multiple shots at Building 197, headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command and a place housing more than 3,000 employees.
Witness said the gunman made his way to a fourth-floor overlook and picked off people as they gathered in a first-floor cafeteria. A law enforcement officer was shot by Alexis after the two exchanged gunfire and the gunman snatched the officer's handgun, using it to shoot more victims, the source said.
Washington Metropolitan police armed with AR-15 rifles engaged the gunman several times before he was killed, Police Chief Cathy Lanier said at a news conference Tuesday. She said heavily armed police were on the scene quickly. "Within seven minutes, we had at least two units, and possibly four units, outside of the building . . . that could hear, actually, another round of gunfire, and they entered immediately on hearing the gunfire," she said.
"I can tell you there were multiple engagements of the suspect with multiple different agencies before the final shots were fired," she said.
In response to questions, she said the exchange of gunfire lasted more than 30 minutes, but less than an hour.
She said two officers were wounded, and the one that remains hospitalized had "a pretty serious injury" but was expected to make a full recovery.
Lanier said investigators were trying to piece together Alexis' actions in the days and hours preceding the shootings.
Two days before the killing spree, Alexis purchased a Remington 870 shotgun and about 28 shells from SharpShooters Small Arms Range in Virginia, according to a statement released by a lawyer for the facility. 
SharpShooters ran a background check on Alexis, using the federal National Crime Information System database, and he was approved for the gun purchase, according to the statement from attorney J. Michael Slocum. Before Alexis bought the shotgun, he took target practice at the range with a rented rifle, according to Slocum's statement.
Weeks before he bought the rifle, there were signs Alexis was mentally troubled.
In his Aug. 7 call to Newport police, he told them he was hearing voices and hopping between several hotels trying to avoid the vibrations being beamed into him from unknown people, Fitzgerald said. Officers took no further action after Alexis told them he did not have a history of mental illness, Fitzgerald said.
Alexis did have a history of misconduct while in the Navy, including instances of not following orders and disappearing from duty without permission, one source said. The FBI is investigating reports from people who knew Alexis that he recently had "work-related issues" and was "angry with the Navy," the source said.
At the Bedford-Stuyvesant home of Alexis' mother, a man who identified himself as the gunman's brother-in-law emerged Tuesday and said the family is trying to understand what happened. "It's devastating," said Anthony Little. "I'm super shocked."
With staff writers
Candice Ruud, Nicole Fuller and William Murphy

USNAVY18

Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis had mental problems: sources

aaron alexis

WASHINGTON -- As much as anything else, it was uncertainty that residents and workers in the most secure city in America wrestled with after they learned of a shooting rampage Monday morning at the military complex at the Navy Yard about a mile from the U.S. Capitol Building.
Many in Washington were on edge and wary as they scanned multiple and conflicting reports on social media and in news accounts about the number of wounded and dead -- and the number of shooters and whether they remained at large.
Many wondered openly who was behind the attack, and how it could happen at the Naval Sea Systems Command, which D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton called one of the most secure sites in the city.
Wayne Wilson, a civil engineer who works at the U.S. Department of Transportation a block from the site, heard and saw the response unfold -- the sirens blaring, the injured being taken away on gurneys.
What bothered him, he said, "was the uncertainty, as far as the proximate danger and the ease of its happening."
Near the White House, Justice Department attorney Starling Marshall, who moved here from Manhattan, said she couldn't help thinking about the 9/11 terrorist attacks and how the families of Monday's victims must feel.
She said her first thought was about how she had just gone through "active shooter" training by U.S. Marshals -- "and I thought 'I hope they had had the same training at the Navy Yard.' "
The uncertainty was evident in President Barack Obama's statement condemning the "cowardly act," but stopping short of defining it as crime or terror.
It also showed in the confusion on Capitol Hill.
The Senate canceled its session Monday and put its half of the Capitol Building on lockdown, while the House, which doesn't return until Tuesday, left its half open, allowing tourists to wander the halls.
Members of Congress, including Long Island representatives, condemned the shooting as they awaited more information.
Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), a House Intelligence Committee member, usually gets a quick read on what's going on. But he said, "I just don't know. It could be one madman. It could be an anti-military plot."
It wasn't only official Washington that was affected. 
The blocks around the shooting scene were roped off and neighbors were told to stay inside as the investigation continued.
Donald Holman, who works in crowd control at Washington Nationals baseball games, emerged Monday afternoon from the Navy Yard metro stop to go to the ballpark for Monday night's game -- which later would be postponed.
"Listening to the news, you don't know what's going on. But we have to come in," he said.
A cashier at a House cafeteria said, "You wake up in the morning to go to work -- and you just never know. I feel really bad for those people and their families."

USMOOD17

After Navy Yard shootings, residents wrestle with uncertainty

US Shooting Military Building

Washington was under siege on Monday, with SWAT teams racing through the streets and military helicopters circling overhead. Not immediately threatened, however, was the complacency that allows our elected officials to argue endlessly about the threats we face rather than work together to lessen them. 
 "We are confronting yet another mass shooting," President Obama said at midday, "and today it happened on a military installation in our nation's capital." 
 A few miles away at the historic Washington Navy Yard, authorities were just beginning to assess the carnage left by a gunman -- or perhaps gunmen -- who sprayed the halls of the Naval Sea Systems Command with semi-automatic weapons fire. Police at one point put the number of fatalities at 13, but the tally of dead and wounded kept changing throughout the afternoon. 
 Was this an act of terrorism, similar to the Fort Hood shootings or the Boston bombings? That theory advanced and receded during the day, amid conflicting reports of multiple assailants and speculation about possible motives. 
 Since no possibility could be quickly ruled out, all the old arguments about the nature of the "war on terror" were deemed in order. Obama's supporters praise him for killing Osama bin Laden and smashing al-Qaeda to bits. Critics say that decentralized terrorism and "self-radicalized" individuals constitute an increasing menace. Both positions are more often used to score political points than to seek solutions. 
 Or was the Navy Yard rampage "just" another senseless multiple shooting, like so many others? During his presidency, Obama has mourned the victims and consoled the survivors of Fort Hood, Tucson, Aurora and Newtown. There was a weariness in his voice as he spoke of Navy personnel who had served bravely overseas yet "today ... faced the unimaginable violence that they wouldn't have expected here at home." 
 The one confirmed shooter -- who died on the scene -- was reportedly carrying at least three firearms. Following the unimaginable horror of Newtown, in which 20 children were slaughtered, Obama could not even convince Congress to mandate universal background checks for gun purchases, let alone take stronger measures to keep powerful weapons out of unstable hands. 
 Opponents of gun control argue that instead of infringing Second Amendment rights, we should focus on the fact that most, if not all, of these mass shooters are psychologically disturbed. But many of the officials who take this view are simultaneously trying their best to repeal Obamacare, which will provide access to mental health services to millions of Americans who are now uninsured. 
 So what difference did it really make what motivated Monday's shooting? Beyond tightening security at military bases, what is our sclerotic political system capable of doing to prevent the next slaughter of innocents? 
 The shocking events in Washington eclipsed what otherwise would have been headline news from New York: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a report providing "clear and convincing" evidence that chemical weapons were indeed used in Syria. 
 The report did not seek to ascribe blame. But it described the trajectory of rockets carrying nerve gas that were fired into a Damascus suburb on Aug. 21, and this data strongly indicates the projectiles were fired by forces loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad. If ever there was doubt, none remains: Assad used poison gas to kill more than 1,400 civilians. 
 In a rare display of consensus, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., both favor passage of a resolution giving Obama the authority to launch a punitive strike against Assad. But neither congressional leader is able to convince his rank-and-file members to back military action. 
 Failing to decide, however, is a decision. The multiple conflicts that intersect in Syria -- Assad versus rebels, Shiites versus Sunnis, Iran versus Saudi Arabia -- have the potential to reshape the Middle East in ways that clearly will have an impact on U.S. national security. Whatever we do or decline to do, we will live with the consequences. 
 We don't want to get involved in Syria. We don't want to honestly assess where we are in the "war on terror." We don't want to deal with gun control. All these issues are fraught with political danger. Much safer for our intrepid elected officials to stake out their positions and yell at the other side, knowing the words will bounce off harmlessly. No progress made, no political damage done. 
 But the world doesn't stop just because Washington does. Sometimes the issues our officials want to ignore hit tragically close to home. 
 Eugene Robinson is a nationally syndicated columnist.

Opinion

Robinson: Navy Yard shooting hits home

Robinson: Navy Yard shooting hits home in gridlocked Washington 

Navy Yard Cropped

The Washington Navy Yard, where at least 12 people were killed in a shooting rampage Monday, is the Navy’s oldest land base. 
 Just 3.5 miles from the White House, the Navy Yard is tucked away from the center of Washington along the shore of the Anacostia River, a small tributary of the Potomac. Outside of the Navy, the base is not well known, even to many Washingtonians. 
 The Navy Yard became the service’s largest shipbuilding facility after it was established in 1799, according to a Navy website. During the War of 1812, with British forces marching on the city, the yard’s buildings were mostly burned to the ground to keep them from falling into enemy hands. 
 After that, military officials decided the Anacostia was too shallow for an active base. The yard was limited to shipbuilding and, by the middle of the 19th century, mostly to manufacturing ordnance. For a century it supplied many of the cannons, other weapons and ammunition used by the U.S. fleet. 
 During the Civil War, with Confederate troops across the Potomac in Virginia, the base once again became a key strategic defense facility. President Lincoln visited frequently, as depicted in the 2012 movie “Lincoln.” After Lincoln’s assassination, eight of the conspirators who plotted his death were brought to the yard, as was the body of assassin John Wilkes Booth. 
 By World War II, it had become the largest naval ordinance plant in the world, according to the Navy. But in the 1960s, its factories were converted to office space. 
 The yard is now an important administrative center for the Navy, housing thousands of civilian and military workers, including the Naval Sea Systems Command, which provides the Navy with military materiel. 
 For that reason, the Washington Navy Yard is known as “the Quarterdeck of the Navy.” 
 The neighborhood around the Navy Yard, once almost exclusively industrial, has in recent years been redeveloped as a residential area, adjacent to Capitol Hill. The Washington Nationals ballpark is just upriver from the base.

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